Charging electric cars at SGHC

The Southampton Geothermal Heating Company (SGHC) serves more than 45 energy users in public and private sectors, and now, electric cars too.

6 dualcharging points

45 energy usersboth public and private

10,000 tonnes of CO2emissions saved each year

26 GWhof electricity per annum

The SGHC Success Story

Who's SGHC

Known as the starting point of Titanic’s maiden voyage and the country’s capital of cruise ports, Southampton struggled with seriously poor air quality. When they looked into the cause, they found that it was because of the high level of CO2 emissions from local cars, heavy goods vehicles, ships entering the port and cargo trucks.

With the problem and causes identified, the Southampton City Council (SCC) pioneered a new project called the Southampton District Energy Scheme (SDES). This innovative solution would supply heat, chilled water, and electricity from sustainable sources to commercial and residential energy consumers across the city.

The Southampton Geothermal Heating Company (SGHC) is the entity that has been pushing the project forward over the last 25 years. It now serves more than 45 energy users in both the public and private sectors.

Why is SGHC going electric?

SGHC is trying to take the lead in the fast-moving clean energy industry by investing in EVs and charging infrastructure. Since the SGCH is producing clean energy, the effects of EV charging are compounded as the electricity used comes from a clean energy grid.

Today, SGHC can proudly say that they save 10,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year by using heat from a large-scale combined heat and power (CHP) plant, supplemented by geothermal energy and conventional boilers.

They’ve also produced:

Over 40 GWh of heat per annum

26 GWh of electricity per annum

7 GWh of chilled water per annum

The role of charging infrastructure in driving mobility

The next natural step to help the city transition to sustainable energy was to electrify their commercial fleet and team up with EVBox as their electric vehicle (EV) charging provider of choice. With 6 connectors and 3 EVs on board already, the company has built a good foundation.

"It's important that anyone engaged with our organization knows we are serious about providing sustainable energy solutions—this is a means of communicating that. We were looking for a specialist charging manufacturer who shared our values, and EVBox provided a Smart charging solution that met our needs—and what’s more—the chargers were color-matched to our building facade too!” - Mark Howell, Operations Manager, Southampton Geothermal Heating Company